It's not too well remembered today, but a similar situation to the current crisis occured in the 1990s regarding North Korea, in the last years of Kim il-Sung's reign. NK hadn't tested a nuke yet but the US was getting seriously alarmed at its plans and for a time things look like they might go to war - defector reports I've read say that the North was seriously preparing for all-out war at that time. What if Clinton had authorized military action to remove NK's nuclear capabilities?
At this time in NK food shortages were starting but the all-out famine hadn't begun yet.